The government should reconsider its plan to grant an amnesty to members of an Acehnese armed group led by Nurdin Ismail aka Din Minimi or risk seeing an upsurge in separatist movements, a lawmaker has warned.

Effendi Simbolon, a member of House of Representatives'€™ Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, said on Wednesday that the government was wrong to compromise with Din and his fellow insurgents, who included an amnesty as one of six prerequisites for surrendering to government forces.

'€œWhy on earth is President [Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo] allowing terrorists to dictate terms? Why on earth are we, a sovereign nation, compromising with separatists? Is Jokowi aware [of the potential consequences]?'€said Effendi as quoted by kompas.com in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker acknowledged that the President had the authority to grant amnesties, but insisted that he must discuss potential amnesties for separatist groups with the House and other parties first.

Effendi said he agreed with the stance of National Police chief Gen.Badrodin Haiti, who has mooted legal proceedings against Din and his followers.

'€œWe must uphold state sovereignty and the rule of law. We must not hand out amnesties willy-nilly. Amnesties are not the solution,'€ Effendi said.

Jokowi, he added, should have learned a lesson from the Helsinki agreement between the administration of then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which, he claimed, besmirched the state'€™s honor and sovereignty.

'€œOf the total 100 items in the agreement, 98 items were in favor of GAM. Would you say that the Helsinki agreement was a sterling piece of work by the Yudhoyono and vice president Jusuf Kalla administration? No indeed. As such, President Jokowi should not repeat their mistake, he should not perpetuate this falsehood that dealing with separatists and pandering to their whims is the proper way of tackling separatism,'€ the legislator went on.

In a press conference on Tuesday, National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Sutiyoso said that Din'€™s group were neither separatists nor criminals, but simply disgruntled former GAM members unhappy at GAM'€™s administration of Aceh.

'€œThe Din Minimi group engaged in a form of resistance. They were unhappy with the former GAM top brass, who now serve in various positions in Aceh local government,'€ Sutiyoso said. (ebf)

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